Vaisakhi Vancouver

I'm glad the weather was good Saturday morning. Otherwise, I would've skipped this year's (and my first) Vaisakhi Parade here in Vancouver. We got to Little India at 11:30AM, just when the police was beginning to close a long strip of Main Street. We circled around till we found a parking spot three blocks away from the corner of Main and 49th, parked, and then hoofed it in.

The first stall—more of a makeshift food table—I visited surprised me. They were handing out plates of some spicey Indian rice. And further down the street, there were samosas, naan bread with chick peas, sweets. All free, unlike the food concessions at every other street festival I've been to. Near 52nd they were literally shoving juice boxes and bottled water into my hands.

Betty mentioned seeing homes literally opening their kitchens doors to serve hot food to passerbys, and concluded that generosity was the operative word of the day. I would have to agree, with the qualification that this generosity was not confined to the material world of food and drink, but applied equally to the spiritual world of kindness: While attempting to make a candid street shot, a woman stopped dead in her tracks and offered to pose with her child, with her smiling husband looking on. Another first. And get this. While I was looking through the viewfinder, carefully composing a vertically-framed shot, which meant I had one elbow high up in the air, I felt a jab near my armpit. A Sikh man in his sixties had quietly come up and was purposely attempting to wreck my concentration by tickling me with his finger!

Sathwick was also there in the throng taking pictures and getting fed, but we never met up. He later commented about how crowded it was.

As for the photography, it was very difficult because of all the people. This was echoed by Sathwick, and in a conversation I had with two D-SLR enthusiasts who were taking a break from the tumult. I didn't talk to them for long, though—smug Canon owners, you know.

Tight head shots was the only viable option, which is how I managed to get this:



As for the parade itself? I missed it altogether. We had to leave by 1:00PM to pick up Betty's sister (who was in from San Francisco) to give her a tour of Robson Street. Maybe next year, if the weather holds.

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I've been using my cell phone in public more. All I have to do now to become a self-important asshole is to don some business attire.